Wells Fargo, Cisco, Intuit Among 6 More Companies Objecting to Tokenized Stocks

Cisco, Wells Fargo, and four other companies have declined to participate in the plans by crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) parent of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to offer blockchain-based trading of their shares. This brings the total number of objections to 22 as companies weigh their participation in the SEC's new framework for tokenized stocks.

The companies, along with Arm Holdings, Moderna, Intuit, and Marvell Technology, were listed in an updated public notice filed by OKXICE, the joint venture between the two firms. The growing number of objections indicates a potential challenge for a new market structure that would allow U.S. investors to trade stocks around the clock on blockchains.

The SEC's five-year "Innovation Exemption" permits qualifying tokenized securities venues, or TSVs, to test trading using automated market makers while allowing issuers to have a say in whether their shares participate. OKXICE, backed by a major exchange operator, proposed using Uniswap liquidity pools on its XLayer blockchain, with transactions settled in stablecoins.

The initial proposed trading list covered 62 companies, but the 22 objections do not all count as departures from the original selection. Cerebras Systems, whose objection was disclosed earlier, was not on that list. OKXICE's co-chairman and former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, stated that such responses are expected, as the framework represents a significant and revolutionary change.